A native of Baizhang Village (百丈村) in Yishui County (in present-day Linyi, Shandong), Li Kui flees from home after killing a person by accident.

Impatient to wait for the chief fishmonger Zhang Shun to come, he tries to snatch some fish from their cages but inadvertently releases them into the river.

Song Jiang, who could travel in and out of jail freely due to Dai Zong, is arrested after he wrote a seditious poem on the wall of a restaurant after getting drunk.

Dai, in conspiracy with the Liangshan outlaws, tries to trick Cai Jiu, the prefect of Jiangzhou, to send Song to the imperial capital Dongjing, hoping to rescue him midway.

Huang Wenbing, the minor official who reported Song's seditious poem to the authorities, is captured by the Liangshan men and subjected to dismemberment by Li Kui.

One of them is Zhu Tong, who finds himself incriminated after the young boy of a magistrate placed in his care is killed by Li Kui on a night when he took the kid outdoors.

The killing was in fact ordered by Wu Yong, Liangshan's chief strategist, to force Zhu to join the stronghold.

Then Chai is called to Gaotangzhou by his uncle's family as Yin Tianxi, a relative of the local prefect Gao Lian, wants to seize their mansion.

Angry at the bullying, Li Kui beats Yin to death, resulting in the arrest of Chai Jin by Gao Lian.

As Gao Lian is an expert in sorcery, Song Jiang sends Dai Zong and Li Kui to fetch Liangshan's magician Gongsun Sheng to fight him.

Li Kui is against Song Jiang's quest for amnesty from Emperor Huizong, seeing it as capitulation to the imperial court.

He sabotages Song Jiang's meeting in Dongjing with Li Shishi, a Gējì whom the emperor secretly patronises.

Li Kui is one of the few Liangshan heroes who survives the campaigns against the Liao invaders and rebel forces on Song territory.

Missing his carefree life on Liangshan, Li Kui shows no interest in the job and spends most of his time drinking.

When Song Jiang realises that he has been poisoned by corrupt officials of the court, he is worried that Li Kui might stir up trouble and besmear the name of Liangshan.

Li Kui appears in Emperor Huizong's dream in the novel's last chapter, charging at the monarch with his axes in an attempt to avenge their wrongful deaths.

In the video game Jade Empire by Bioware, a character who resembles Li Kui and also goes by the nickname "The Black Whirlwind" joins the player's party as it gets underway.

The character of Tetsugyu (which roughly translates as "Iron Ox"), known too as the Black Whirlwind, is based on Yokoyama's adaptation of Li Kui.